Mandira Bedi recalls harsh criticism of her cricket hosting skills

Mandira Bedi remembered, in an interview with Curly Tales, “In 2002, India overcame England and made it to semi-finals of a competition called the Champions Trophy… I chose to visit Sri Lanka to see the game as I enjoy cricket now. I so bought a ticket for myself and arrived there. People from Sony spotted her there, she added, and were intrigued about why she would have paid her own money to attend the competition. “I arrived but paid my own ticket; they were flying down celebrities to see the cricket at that time. They simply had me at the back of their minds as someone who truly enjoys cricket.

She went on, “So they simply contacted me haphazardly when they wanted a female anchor for the 2003 World Cup. I was thinking, “What’s going on?” as soon as I arrived as a lot of people were throwing cricket questions at me. Would you be interested in hosting the World Cricket Cup? they asked me. I thought, “Would I be interested?” True! Not as simple as that, though. Three auditions were held, and more than a thousand additional ladies applied for this post.

Mandira said that she ceased getting acting opportunities once she finally got so well-known as a presenter. She stated, “After that, I was only getting offers for anchoring jobs and MC positions and people forgot that I was an actor, and that I’d done eight years of acting previously. Even if I landed any acting part following the gig, it would always be about being an anchor, playing a cricket commentator and presenter, and I would have said, “You have forgotten, but I know acting. I entered the acting profession first.